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Electrum, gold, silver: Soma in the Rigveda Dr. S. Kalyanaraman September 3, 1998 ABSTRACT The discovery of the ancient courses of the Sarasvati river is the discovery of the millennium and the date of desiccation of this great river (ca. 1700 to 1300 B.C.) is fundamental in providing a broad range of dates for the Rigveda and in establishing the continuity of the Indian civilization from ca. 7000 B.C. The desiccation of river led to migrations of people away from the banks of the river. Rigveda relates to the period when the river was in full flow, fed by the glacier waters from three sources: (1) Mt. Kailas (S’atadru), (2) Yamuna (erstwhile Chambal river) fed by the glacier waters of Yamunotri and (3) Tons and Giri rivers fed by the Har-ki-dun glacier complex (Rupin and Supin) of the Bandarpunch massif (20 kms. NW of Yamunotri, in W. Garhwal, UP) The banks of the Sarasvati river had nourished the civilization ca. 3000 to 1700 B.C. (Website: http://www.probys.com/sarasvati) The river also binds the Rigvedic culture and the Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization since the Sarasvati river is the locus of over 1200 ancient archaeological settlements and sapta-sindhu is the Rigvedic domain. Archaeology has provided C-14 dates for the settlements on the banks of the Sarasvati river and work in historical metallurgy has established the antiquity of the Ganeshwar mines in Rajasthan which provided the mineral sources to sustain the bronze age civilization. Earth sciences have established the secular sequence of desiccation of the Sarasvati river in a period ranging from 4000 to 8000 years Before Present (B.P.) The conclusions from these earth science perspectives are that when the Sarasvati river was in its mighy flow, it had carried the glacier waters which are now carried by Shatadru and Yamuna and that the Rigveda is dated to a period of two millennia starting from a date earlier than 3000 B.C. The soma yajn~a is the soul of the Rigveda (a_tma_ yajn~asya: RV. IX. 2,10; 6,8). What is soma? Soma was electrum (gold-silver ore) which was purified in the pavitra to yield potable gold and silver after reducing and oxidizing the baser metals using ks.a_ra supplied by plants and using bones also as reducing agents. (Kalyanaraman, Indian Alchemy: Soma in the Vedas, Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, in press).

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Electrum, gold, silver: Soma in the Rigveda

Dr. S. Kalyanaraman September 3, 1998

ABSTRACTThe discovery of the ancient courses of the Sarasvati riveris the discovery of the millennium and the date ofdesiccation of this great river (ca. 1700 to 1300 B.C.) isfundamental in providing a broad range of dates for theRigveda and in establishing the continuity of the Indiancivilization from ca. 7000 B.C. The desiccation of riverled to migrations of people away from the banks of theriver.Rigveda relates to the period when the river was in fullflow, fed by the glacier waters from three sources: (1)Mt. Kailas (S’atadru), (2) Yamuna (erstwhile Chambal river)fed by the glacier waters of Yamunotri and (3) Tons andGiri rivers fed by the Har-ki-dun glacier complex (Rupinand Supin) of the Bandarpunch massif (20 kms. NW ofYamunotri, in W. Garhwal, UP) The banks of the Sarasvatiriver had nourished the civilization ca. 3000 to 1700 B.C.(Website: http://www.probys.com/sarasvati) The river alsobinds the Rigvedic culture and the Sarasvati-Sindhucivilization since the Sarasvati river is the locus of over1200 ancient archaeological settlements and sapta-sindhu isthe Rigvedic domain. Archaeology has provided C-14 datesfor the settlements on the banks of the Sarasvati river andwork in historical metallurgy has established the antiquityof the Ganeshwar mines in Rajasthan which provided themineral sources to sustain the bronze age civilization.Earth sciences have established the secular sequence ofdesiccation of the Sarasvati river in a period ranging from4000 to 8000 years Before Present (B.P.) The conclusionsfrom these earth science perspectives are that when theSarasvati river was in its mighy flow, it had carried theglacier waters which are now carried by Shatadru and Yamunaand that the Rigveda is dated to a period of two millenniastarting from a date earlier than 3000 B.C.

The soma yajn~a is the soul of the Rigveda (a_tma_yajn~asya: RV. IX. 2,10; 6,8). What is soma? Soma waselectrum (gold-silver ore) which was purified in thepavitra to yield potable gold and silver after reducing andoxidizing the baser metals using ks.a_ra supplied by plantsand using bones also as reducing agents. (Kalyanaraman,Indian Alchemy: Soma in the Vedas, Delhi, MunshiramManoharlal, in press).

Maha_vrata is a remarkable example of the continuity ofthe civilization and culture on the banks of theSarasvati). Maha_vrata is the day of the winter solsticewhich is celebrated as the New Year’s Day in Punjab, Assam,Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu (cf. festivals of Rohri,Bogali Bihu, Bhogi-man.t.alu, Bhogi-Pongal; the traditionis to burn out the old and herald the new by using thefresh produce from the harvest.) Aitareya a_ran.yaka whichis an integral component of the Rigveda explains themaha_vrata as a ritual and as an allegory.

A decipherment of the script of the civilization has ledto the announcement that the inscriptions are lists ofbronze-brass-copper weapons produced by the fire- andmetal-workers of the bronze-age civilization. The websiteis: http://sarasvati.simplenet.com ([email protected])The decipherment of the inscriptions of the civilizationuses an Indian Lexicon which integrates the lexemes of allthe languages of India in semantic clusters. This is achange in paradigm in philology establishing India of thedays of the Rigvedic culture and Sarasvati-Sindhucivilization as a Linguistic Area as the bronze age dawnedca. 3000 B.C. and matured for the next two millennia withfurther advances in philology, philosophy, mathematics,alchemy, architecutre, iconography and other culturalphenomena, resulting in the formation of Indian languages.

The epigraphical evidence from Mitanni-Hurrian-Subareanarea in Mesopotamia, ca. 17th cent. BC show definite use ofthe Sanskrit language in toponymy, in references to Vedicdeities and in the training of horses. Strict adherance tothe assumed Indo-European migrations alone, to a periodante-dating the Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization (ca. 3000 to1300 BC) or the assumed contemporaneity of the Avestan or ahypothetical proto-Aryan linguistic area (which had itslocus in eastern Iran, in late 1st millennium BC) cannotexplain this evidence. A simple explanation (without anyspecial pleading) is that some Sanskrit-speaking, sea-faring peoples from India had migrated to the Tigris-Euphrates doab crossing the Persian Gulf and had movedupstream of the Euphrates river, in the course of theirtrade contacts, principally to trade in metallic ores,metals and weapons.

Soma adored in the Rigveda and the cooperativesociety of the bronze age

Rigveda is a documentation, orally transmitted, of theprocess of refining soma or electrum (gold-silver ore).This process was nurtured on the banks of the Sarasvatiriver with links to the Sindhu sa_gara.

Rigvedic workers were also fire-/metal-workers like thearmourers who produced weapons using copper and tin/zincalloys yielding bronze and brass.

The fire-workers also produced lapidary crafts such asstoneware bangles and gem-stones, apart from the use ofelectrum and bronze for ornaments. The evidence ofinscriptions has yielded two silver seals apart from scoresof copper tablets used to convey movable propertytransactions.

d'm = electrum (Egyptian); assem= electrum (Egyptian);somnakay = gold (Gypsy); soma = electrum (RV)(See analysisin: Kalyanaraman, Indian Alchemy (in press).

A NOTE ON THE USE OF ANIMAL BONES IN PROCESSING ELECTRUM

Animal sacrifices are often cited as a part of the ritual.They can also be explained in the context of gold-silver-electrum-quartz metallurgy. Bones and ground-up potsherdsin a cupel absorb the lead oxide during the process ofcupellation, to leave behind the pure precious metal. (cf.Also the later-day tradition of as’vamedha).

Bones have been used since ancient times in the process ofseparating silver from lead in the galena ore.

“Two steps are involved in producing silver from leadores. Lead ore is melted first under the appropriatereducing and/or oxidizing conditions to producemetallic lead. Silver is then extracted from the leadby cupellation by which the lead is oxidised tolitharge (lead oxide), leaving behind the silver. Forthis the lead is heated under strongly oxidizingconditions in a cupel. The lead oxide so formed isabsorbed in the porous material of bone or ground-uppotsherds in the cupel, leaving silver metal behind.This process may be repeated several times to purify

the silver; it is very efficient in freeing silverfrom such common impurities as copper, antimony,arsenic, tin, iron, zinc (less well for bismuth), inthe argentiferous lead.” (R.J. Forbes, in: Singer etal., A history of Technology, 1954, pp. 573-587).

SARASVATI: SOMA YAJÑA AND THE VEDA

The argument: Rigveda is a metallurgical allegory; soma iselectrum ore According to Louis Renou, the immense Rigvediccollection is present in nuce in the themes related toSoma. About 120 hymns out of a total of 1028 hymns or athousand verses and almost the entire ninth book deal withSoma. Soma is a material and also the only processelaborated in the Rigveda. The rest of the hymns related toAgni, Indra or other facets of vedic life will have to beconcordant with this process which seems to constitute thevery essence of vedic life, a process integral to the day-to-day living of the vedic seeker. The amšu were pressedand processed almost like a religious act.

Soma yajña in Rigvedic days, in particular, connotes theprocess of parting/extracting gold and silver from Soma,electrum ore (gold-silver pyrite ore). This may be calledauri-faction in alchemical terms; the ri±is or sages whocomposed riks abounding in philological brilliance, perhapsbelieved that they were in fact producing gold.

The interpretation of the Rigveda as a metallurgicalallegory, in respect of the processing of Soma, declares achange of paradigm in vedic studies.

The oral tradition of transmitting the knowledge of gold-smelting operations was continued over millennia tomaintain secrecy. The tradition of secrecy becomesallegorical as the bràhma¯as and Šrautasùtras bureaucratizethe process with allegorically-coded manuals for smeltingoperations. A nexus develops between the brahmans and theruling classes and the former are generally in the employof kings, led by a r.twij and a purohita; and live in thesame quarters of the royal palace, where goldsmiths live.The processes indicate that the alchemical traditionsustained by the ruling-priestly class-consortium was auri-fiction; that is, the priests knew that they were not, infact, producing gold. The state-power was used tomonopolize this operation of accumulating gold and silvermetals into the state treasuries.

The analysis is advanced with reference to three historicalmilestones, and three related facets of alchemy as anenterprise:

(1) Rigveda and aurifaction;(2) Šatapatha Bràhma¯a and aurifiction; and(3) Arthašàstra and alchemy as a state enterprise.

Soma, as a metaphorical elixir of immortality. We havedrunk the Soma and become immortal; We have attained thelight the gods discovered. What can hostility now doagainst us? And what, immortal God, the spite of mortals?(R.V. VIII.48.3)

This hymn from the world’s oldest recorded oral literatureseems to deal with the preparation and use of an ‘elixir’.This hymn sets the framework for tracing the Indianalchemical tradition and its science potentials. The tracewill perhaps lead us to the earliest alchemical traditionof the ancient world. It is significant that in acontemporary civilization, Gilgamesh of Babylonian mythstoo sets out to discover eternal life and finds amiraculous plant of immortality growing at the bottom ofthe sea. He plucks it, leaves it unguarded. It is stolenby a water snake. Water, plant and snake symbolisms areindeed central to all alchemical traditions.

Soma is not a drink

somam manyate papiva_n yatsampim.santyos.adhimsomam yam brahma_n.o vidurnatasyas’na_ti kas’cana (RV.10.85.3)

“One thinks one has drunk soma after crushing theos.adhi (herbs); soma which bra_hman.as know is neverdrunk.”

(The same hymn as RV. 10.85.3 in AV XIV.1.3).

Chàndogya Upanis.ad (V.10.4) is emphatic; soma is not adrink for the mortals:

es.a somo ràjà. tad devànàam annam. tam deva_ bhaks.yanti.Soma is king. Soma is food for the gods. Gods eat Soma.

‘O Soma, guarded by that which is meant to cover you,guarded by him who lives in the high (heaven?), you standlistening to the pressing stones. No earthly one eatsyou.’ (RV X.85.4).

Soma is adored with all the 114 hymns of the ninth book ofthe Rigveda apart from 6 hymns in other books. He is alsoadored as a dual divinity with Indra, Agni, Pu_s.an orRudra in 6 additional hymns. Soma as a word in its basicform and in compound form occurs hundreds of times in theRigveda. “Judged by the standard of frequency, Somatherefore comes third in order of importance among theVedic gods. Soma is much less anthropomorphic than Indra orVarun.a, the constant presence of the plant and its juicesetting limits to the imagination of the poets who describeits personification. Consequently little is said of hishuman form or action... Like other gods, he is, under thename of Indu as well as Soma, invoked to come to thesacrifice and receive the offerings on the strewn grass.The ninth book mainly consists of incantations sung overthe tangible Soma while it is pressed by the stones, flowsthrough the litter of grass to the gods as a beverage,sometimes in fire (I,94; 5,5; 8,43)...The processes towhich it is subjected are overlaid with the most varied andchaotic imagery and with mystical fancies often incapableof certain interpretaion.” (A.A. Macdonell, The VedicMythology, Varanasi, Indological Book House, 1963, p. 104).This work supplies the references collated in the followingtwo paragraphs.

The part of Soma which is pressed by Adhvaryu (RV. 8,4) isthe am.s’u (lit. shoot or stalk). Soma is described asmaujavata (RV. 10,34; lit. produced on Mount Mu_javat);also as dwelling in the mountains (giris.tha_) or growingin the mountains parvata_vr.dh: RV. 9,46). In one figure ofspeech, Varun.a is stated to have placed soma on the rock(RV. 5,85) and in another, the eagle carries off soma fromthe rock (RV. 1,93). Terrestrial mountains are the abode ofsoma (RV. 9,2). Soma is the branch of a ruddy tree (RV.10,94). It is the ruddy or tawny shoot which is pressedinto the strainer (RV. 9,92). During pressing with tenreins (i.e. fingers: RV. 6,44), soma is figuratively placedin the heaven, the highest place of the cows (RV. 5,45);other figures of speech are purification with the hands(RV. 9,86), with ten fingers (RV. 9,8.15), by ten maidensisters (RV. 9.1.6) . Stone (adri; also, as’na, bharitra,parvata, parvata_ adrayah: RV. 8,2; 3,36; 3,35; 10,94).) is

used to crush Soma (RV. 9,67; 9,107); pounding is the verb(RV. 10,85). The stones are on a skin [’chewed on the hideof the cow’ (RV. 9,79]. The stones are placed on the vedior altar (RV. 5,31). Ten reins guide the crushing stones(RV. 10,94); ten fingers yoke the stone (RV. 5,43) andhence compared with horses (RV. 10,94).

[Rigveda uses the general technique of pressing usingstones, though the process using mortar and pestle is known(RV. 1.28); this latter practice is used by Parsis. Avestaalso states that Haoma grows on the mountains]

As a juice, Soma is called the rasa, fluid; and in one hymnit is pi_tu (lit. beverage). King Soma when pressed is theam.r.ta (or somyam madhu or lit. soma mead (RV. 4,26;6,20). Very often, the figure of speech for soma is indu(lit. the bright drop). The drop is for Indra to drink (RV.9,32.38). The seme, su (lit. to press) describes theextraction process of the rasa. Sometimes the seme, duh(lit. to milk) is used. The drops arepoured through a strainer of sheep’s wool (RV. 9,69) toremove impurity (RV. 9,78). The strainer is a skin (tvac),hair (roman), wool (va_ra), filter (pavitra), ridge (sa_nuor the top of the contrivance). These terms are used withor without an adjective formed from avi (sheep). The stageof passing through the strainer is called pavama_na orpuna_na (from seme, pu: lit. flowing clear). The unmixed,purified soma is offered exclusively to va_yu and Indra(va_yu is adored with the epithet: s’ucipa_: drinkingclear (soma). As the juice flows, the comparison is withthe ‘wave of a stream’ (RV. 9,80) or just a wave (RV.9,64). As the juice accumulates in the vat (kalas’a: RV.9,60), it is compared to a sea (arn.ava: RV. 10,115) or asamudraa (RV. 5,47; 9,64). As water is poured to mix withthe rasa, the stalk roars (RV. 9,74). “Like a bull on theherd, he rushes on the vat, into the lap of the waters, aroaring bull; clothing himself in waters, Indu rushesaround the vat, impelled by the singers (RV. 9,76.107).”The roar is likened to the roar of a bull (‘As a bull hebellows in the wood (RV. 9,7). Soma is brilliant andcoloured yellow and hence compared with the rays of the sun(RV. 9,76.86). Gods drink him for immortality (RV. 9,106);soma confers immortality on gods (RV. 1,91; 9,108) and onmen (RV. 1.91; 8; 48)gods love the amr.ta (RV. 9,85); allthe gods drink soma (RV. 9,109); all the gods becomeexhilarated (RV. 8,58); soma is immortal (RV. 1.43; 8,48;9,3). Soma strengthens Indra in his conflict with the

hostile powers of the air, with Vr.tra (RV. 8,81); somabecomes the thousand-winning bolt (RV. 9,47), wins ahundred forts (RV. 9,48). Soma is a treasure (rayi: RV.9,48). Soma is a god pressed for the gods (RV. 9,3).

Atharva veda refers to the deficiency in name; this stanzais used, as a primary authority by some scholars, tojustify the identification of Soma as the moon, sincedars’a is interpreted as the slender crescent of the moon:‘O stem of Soma (somasyams’o), lord of the combatant(yudha_m), you are indeed not-deficient by name (nùnonama); make me, O first sight (darša) not-deficient(anu_nam), both by progeny and wealth.’ (AV. VII.86.3).Soma, has the radical su, to press; pressing is the keyprocess. Soma is that which is pressed. In the developingallegory, Soma is seen to be released from the cover,Vritra or the ‘aryan dragon motif or Vritra, who possessesthe waters, using the vajra thunderbolt. Buschardt alsoobserves that the mountains which are Vritra’s body arealso the same on which the Soma plants grow; Vritra-killingand Soma-pressing are one and the same act; Soma-pressingis Soma-killing; killing signifies making him ‘whole’ andthis is creation. Vajra is a concept related to thereducing agents: Lahiri summarizes Buschardt’s perceptionssuccinctly. “Buschardt traced the origin of the vajra, theweapon with which Indra kills Vritra, to the culticimplements the pressing stone used to crush the Soma-stalks, or pestle.

The cultic implements on icons are remarkable records ofalchemical legacy. Since the artist wanted to symbolizethe representation with great fidelity, he used enormousdegrees of freedom in adding to the icons four, six oreight hands; so that on each hand, he could represent thesymbolism related to a cult implement such as akaman.d.alu, an aks.a ma_la, a ladle, a vajra, etc. Many ofthese implements are alchemist’s tools and relate to hisapparatus. If this iconographic tradition can beextrapolated to the proto-indus seals, the so-called ‘cultobject’ in front of the unicorn comes alive as a smelter-filter of the lapidary, the centre-piece of his very craftand life-mission.

Sometimes, even àjya (melted butter), sphya (spade ofkhadira wood), abhri (spade), yùpa (posts in thesacrificial site where the victim used to be bound), thewaters etc. are styled vajra... the cult instrument which

happens to be decisive at that particular moment isreferred to as vajra...

Linking vajra with the waters finds significant supportfrom dravidian etyma: DEDR 761: Kannada.vajjara, ojjara aspring, fountain; orale oozing, oravu spring; Tamil. ùru tospring, flow (as water in a well); ùral small spring,spring-water, oozing, percolation; Kui. urpa to ooze,spring up; Maltese. orbe to fall in showers. The imagerysought to be evoked by the vedic poet-artisan is relatableto the intense desire to use a weapon that will enforce theflow of the metallic essence, rasa. vajra, therefore,connotes the resin that flows from the male trees!“Vajra is the cult’s demon killing power as such, andBuschardt thought that the origin of vajra must be tracedto the pressing stones which play a dominant role in thecentral moment of the cult, the pressing of the Soma... Atthe Soma pressing water is poured over the Soma stalks andhence they actually take part in the Soma pressing, thatis, Vritra-killing...The separation of Soma and Vritrabecomes complete with the purified Soma on the one side,and the crushed lifeless demon on the other. This Soma‘clear flowing’ fills up the gathering vessel...Thus theconflict is over.” (Buschardt,L., Vrtra: Det RituelleDaemondrab iden Vediske Soma-kult, Kobenhavn 1945, p.48;loc.cit. Lahiri, A.K., Vedic Vrtra, Delhi, MunshiramManoharlal, 1984, p.21.)

Crysocole, or copper carbonate, was used by goldworkers asa solder. Two oxides of copper, red and black, were known.Mary, the Jewess-alchemist, often refers to the ‘littleleaf of copper’, the copper foil hung on the kerotakis tobe subjected to the attack of mercury vapours or of sulphurvapours which was sublimed in the aludel fitted withkerotakis. cf. Hopkins, A.J., Alchemy, 1967, p.108. The‘leaf’ motif has a remarkable parallel in Indus scriptsigns and in an exquisitely executed pictorial motif whichdepicts two ‘unicorn’ heads surrounding a stylized‘sublimation device’, may be kampat.t.am, topped by nineleaves. In the jeweler’s art, a process called ‘royalcement’ is used, which may perhaps be traced to Tvashtr’sgilding techniques. “To a large quantity of fused basemetal a little gold was added and the whole cooled to formone ‘metal’, and this solid solution was then shaped intosome form such as a ring. This was then etched on thesurface by alum or other mordant salt. The surface of thebase metal, such as lead, by this process would be

dissolved away, leaving granules of pure gold in relief,thus making the ring appear to be made wholly of gold. Thisprocess had been known from very early times.” Hopkins,A.J., Alchemy, 1967, p.49. Some etyma: RV iv.20.6 vajramark; in RV. x.108.7 vajrabhir-nryus.t.ah qualifying nidhi;in vi.22.5 vajra-hastam holding vajra in hand. Pali.vajiraIndra or Sakka’s thunderbolt; diamond. Tamil (lex.)vaccira-kantam yellow orpiment; vaccirakam pericarp of thelotus; vaccirappacai a kind of glue; vacciram a treatise onarchitecture; vaccira-ya_ppu glue-ing, in woodwork;vaccira-rasam purified mercury. DEDR 5214 Tamil. vaci rain,water; Kannada. basi, bose to drip, drop, trickle.Atharva veda (AV.IX.6) can be interpreted as providing theclearest statement on the smelting process of the Soma yajawhich is echoed in later-day alchemical texts:“...the shed for housing the Soma cars...green sticks thatsurround the sacrificial altars (as a fence to restrict therange of fire)...The grains of rice and barley that areselected are just filaments of the Soma plant. The pestleand mortar are really the stones of the Soma press. Thewinnowing-basket is the filter, the chaff the Soma dregs,the water the pressing-gear. Spoon, ladle, fork, stirringprong are the wooden Soma tubs; the earthen cooking potsare the mortar-shaped Soma vessels; this earth is just theblack-antelope’s skin...The man who supplies food hathalways pressing stones adjusted, a wet Soma filter, well-prepared religious rites...he who hath this knowledge winsthe luminous spheres.”Metals were not fully distinguished from their alloys; allcarried names such as aes, electrum etc. Ayas meant metal.Asem denoted the natural alloy of silver and gold; it alsomeant any bright metal made with copper, tin, lead, zinc,arsenic and mercury. Twelve or thirteen different alloyswere called asem (Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilizationin China, vol. 5, pt. II, p.45) “At Gungeria, in districtBalaghat, 102 pieces of silver plates were discovered alongwith 424 copper implements. The silver was found to beadmixed with 3.7% gold (...1100 B.C. - 800 B.C.). Thepresence of 3.7% gold in these silver pieces indicates theextraction of silver from electrum...” (Smith, V., 1905,Indian Antiquary, pp. 233 ff.; loc.cit. Bharadwaj, H.C.,Aspects of Ancient Indian Technology, Delhi, MotilalBanarsidass, 1979, p. 138).

Asem was Soma; this hypothesis will be the running-threadof this review of the alchemical tradition of ancientIndia, dating back to R.gveda. Hopkins states: “The

existence of this alloy (assem) may have been the originalcause for the suggestion of transmutation since by addingsilver to it, one would get a metal nearly identical withthe crude silver from the mine; and by adding gold,something indistinguishable from gold. [The paucity of theEgyptian language may perhaps have been responsible for aconfusion. Gold was the ‘yellow metal’, and the alloyproduced was also a ‘yellow metal’.]” (Hopkins, A.J.,Alchemy, 1967, pp. 103-104).

The parallels with the Indian alchemical tradition areapparent: tan:kam gold in dravidian-Chinese becomest.an.kan.a borax (a reagent!) in indo-aryan, t.an:ka goldcoin; the terms hiran.yam, hema-bìjam, connote the yellowmetal.

“The use of borax (pheng sha) as a preparatory agent forsoldering and brazing (in the molten state it cleans metalsurfaces by dissolving metallic oxides) goes back in Chinato the +11th century, for it is mentioned by Su Sung (khohan chin yin)... Li shi-Chen says that borax ‘kills’ thefive metals, as saltpetre does; presumably this refers tothe preparation of metallic salts. The mild and non-irritant antiseptic quality which has given it such wideuse in Western and even modern, medicine, was appreciatedby the Chinese pharmacists, who prescribed it for all kindsof external, including phthalic, affections.” (Needham, J.,SCC, vol. III, 1959, p. 663).

In the Babylonian Talmud (+2nd century), asemon is acommonly used word referring to bullion (gold, silver ormixed.) Leiden X papyrus (c. +3rd century) says: “no.8. Itwill be asem, (i.e. electrum, an alloy of gold and silver)which will deceive even the artisans (a tin-copper-gold-silver alloy); no.12. Falsification of gold (a zinc-copper-lead-gold alloy)...” (cited in Needham, Joseph, SCC, vol.5, Pt. II, pp. 18-21). Soma yajña as a ritual, can beinterpreted as an elaborate justification for the memoriesof processing asemon, asem, electrum.

A Tamil lexicon of Winslow (1862) provides a philologicaltrace: Soma man.al, is interpreted as meaning vel.l.iman.al, sand containing silver ore! Soma, Soma man.al,asemon, asem, electrum may perhaps denote the samesubstance that dazzled and drew travellers of antiquity insearch of indus gold. It may perhaps be the same substance[which required the purificatory ‘mineral waters’]

contained in the kaman.d.alu symbols in the icons of theyaks.a legacy. It may perhaps be the same substance saidto be am°tam which was considered to be the elixir of life,of immortality. It may perhaps be the same substancereferred to, in sheer poetry, as amritam a_yur hiran.yam.Gold is immortality.

Soma! The very justification for the vedic hymns; thequintessence of the only technological process elaboratedin magnificent poetry and philological excursus in thegrand allegory, the Rigveda.

These findings are further elaborated in the work:Indian Alchemy: Soma in the Veda, by Dr. S.Kalyanaraman (in press; forthcoming (1998)publication of Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi).

SOMA

With this background information on the locus of Rigvedicculture and the Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization, we canrevisit the archaeological evidence and the textualevidence.The Soma yajn~a is the soul of the Rigveda (a_tma_yajn~asya: RV. IX. 2,10; 6,8). Linking with Indra, Soma iscalled in RV. IX.85,3 the ‘soul (a_tma_) of Indra’, thebolt (vajra) of Indra’ (RV. IX.77,1) and even ‘generator ofIndra’ (RV. IX.96.5).

What is Soma? Soma which was the ‘soul’ of the vedicsacrifice was put through three daily pressings, whileworshipping all the gods. (Avesta Yasna X.2 mentions onlytwo pressings). Soma/haoma literally means ‘extract’, fromthe root su – hu ‘to press’. Scores of decipherments havebeen claimed as summarized by Harry Falk (Soma I andII, 1989, BSOAS, LII, Pt. 1, pp. 77-90). It would appearthat a new interpretation is possible: Soma was electrum(gold-silver ore) which was purified in the pavitram toyield potable gold and silver after reducing and oxidizingthe baser metals using ks.a_ra supplied by plants and usingbones also as reducing agents. (Kalyanaraman, IndianAlchemy: Soma in the Veda, Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, inpress). This metallurgical, allegorical interpretation isconsistent with the decipherment of the script of thecivilization revealed through over 3000 inscriptions onseals, tablets, copper tablets and on metallic weapons. Thedecipherment claims that the inscriptions are lists of

bronze-brass-copper weapons produced by the fire- andmetal-workers of the civilization. The dawn of bronze agein the civilization area is attested by many hundreds ofartefacts of weapons and tools, apart from exquisitearticles of jewellery using gold, silver, electrum, bronze,copper and artificial stones.

In the early stages of the use of Soma, mythology was notthe dominant characteristic; it was simply a product whichhad to be processed. (See also Falk, Harry, Soma I and II,1989, BSOAS, LII, Pt. 1, pp. 77-90; Falk analyses Soma asa plant and concludes that it was ephedra, used as astimulant). In the context of the poetics of the Rigvedawhich abounds in allegories, puns and metaphors, it ishypothesised that only Soma, and Soma alone was a productrefined using Agni; all the other references to gods arepoetic degrees of freedom to invoke gods into artefactsused in the processing of Soma. Perhaps, even Indra wasrelatable to the lexeme: indh (semant. firewood orcharcoal):

i~dhaur.a_ = room for storing wood (H.); idho_n = tripod toput over the fire (Kal.); indhana = fuel (Pali); e~_date =fireplace (Wg.); saminddhe_ = sets fire to, takes fire;samiddha = ignited; samidh = fuel (RV.); samidha_ = fuel(Pali); samiha_ = fuel (Pkt.); su~dhkan.a_ = to be kindled(P.); negad.i = large fire lighted for warmth in coldweather or to keep off wild beasts (Te.); iruntai, iruntu,iruntil = charcoal (Ta.); cirun = charcoal (Pa.); sindi =soot (Kol.); sirin (pl. sirnil) = charcoal, cinders (Ga.);irk, sirik = charcoal (Go.); ri_ka, ri_nga = charcoal(Pe.); si_nga = charcoal (Kui); ri_nga, ri_ngla charcoal(Kuwi)

Gernot L. Windfuhr, [Haoma/Soma: the plant, in: ActaIranica 25 (= Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce,Hommages et Opera Minora, 11) (Leiden, 1985), 699-726, seepp. 703, 707] has pointed out that Soma was neitherhallucinogenic nor intoxicant and proceeds to identify Somaas ginseng, a root used as a stimulant. The identificationof Soma as a root is questionable because ginseng has nocomponent to connote am.s’u/asu.

RV 10.34.1 states: Somasyeva maujavatasya bhaks.ovibhi_dako ja_gr.vir mahyam accha_n (an alerting eatable orfood from mount mu_javat). Soma keeps Indra awake(vivyaktha mahina_ vr.s.an bhaks.am. Somasya ja_gr.ve (RV.

8.92.23). Soma is the inspirer or vipra of Angiras (RV.9.107.6). [cf. an:ga_ra = glowing charcoal (RV.); angar id.(Gypsy). in:gha_l.a = growing embers (Pali); i~gal.,i~gl.a_ charcoal-burner (M.); aggi = fire (Te.)] In thecontext of processing (refining or purifying or smelting)Soma electrum ore or quartz ), charcoal is a vitalcomponent; since charcaol combines with the baser metalsand oxidizes them leaving the residual potable, gold-silvercompound which is electrum. When Soma is referred to asindrapi_ta or ‘drunk by Indra (indav indrapi_tasya )(PB1.5.4), the reference is indeed to the reducing action ofglowing charcoal embers during the process of smelting theelectrum ore. Naturally, Indra received the major share ofSoma. (RV. I.2,3; II.41 indicate the sequence of offeringsof Soma: va_yu, indra-va_yu, mitra-varun.a, as’vins, indra,vis’ve deva_h, Sarasvati_.) Thus, Indra, as the chiefpartaker of Soma, is linked with Soma from the mountains(the ore) and some on the earth (ground in pressing-stones): ‘May heavenly drink exhilarate theee, Indra, andalso what is pressed in earthly places’. (RV. X. 116,3).

RV. X. 85,3 refers to the Soma known only to the brahmans;this is an early indication of the mystery or secretdoctrine that would surround the Soma pressing process inlater-day texts. The nature of Soma would be mystified inlater texts by references to the moon (the colour of silvercomponent of electrum). Tamil tradition has it in a lexeme:co_ma man.al = sand containing silver ore. (Winslow’slexicon).

The water element is the potable metal; Vr.tra withheld thewaters. Indra frees the waters. Soma is described as having‘hanging branches bending down’ (naica_s’a_kha: RV.III.53,14) It is not necessary to interpret the term‘ti_vra’ (sharp) in the context of taste; ti_vra connotesthe sharpness of the metallic components of the ore blocks.a~_su = fibrous layer at root of coconut branches, edge orprickles of leaves; a~_s = fibre, pith (Or.); a~_si~_ fineparticles of flattened rice in winnowing fan (M.); theselexemes provide a semantic lead to the am.s’u/asu used todescribe Soma; the term connotes the streaks of metal, seenlike fibres of a stringy fruit or nap of cloth [a~_s (B.)].The am.s’u was ruddy (RV. VII.98,1). The RV reference toSoma ‘growing’ on the mountains (giris.t.ha_) is explainedin the context of the ores obtained from the mines in NWIndia. (giris.t.ha: RV. III.48,2; V.43.4; IX.18.1, 62,4;parvata_vr.dh: RV. IX.46.1) Hence, the reference to Somam

adrau (RV. 5.85.2) plucked in two rocks. The colour of theSoma filaments contained in the ore block are ‘reddish’ or‘yellow’ (arun.a/arus.a or hari/za_iri). Za_iri = golden-hued (Yasna IX.16,30). RV. 10.97.18, 19 refer to the groupof herbs having Soma as their king (Somara_jn~ih); thegrowth of herbs on the mountains is the obvious referencehere. ‘Ma_taris’van fetched one of you (Agni and Soma) fromheaven; the eagle twirled the other from the cloud-rock’.(RV. I.93,6). The links of Soma with rocks are vivid.(adri: RV. V.85,2; I.93,6)[See Bloomfield, The Legend ofSoma and the Eagle, JAOS, 16, 1896, pp. 1-24). ‘High is thebirth of thee, the plant; thee being in heaven the earthreceived’. (RV. IX. 61.10). Yasna (X.4,10-12,17) placeshaoma on the high mountain haraiti; it is placed there by askilful god, wherefrom holy birds carried it everywhere tothe heights. Rigveda connects Soma with the mountMu_javant: ‘As draught of Maujavata Soma, so doth, theenlivening vibhi_daka delight me’ (RV. X.34,1). Griswoldnotes: ‘The mountain Mu_javantt (if it was a mountain andnot simply the name of a people), being closely connectedwith the Gandha_ris (AV. V.22,5,7,8,14) must have beensituated somewhere between Bactria and the Punjab. In theTait. Samh. I. 8,6,2 and the AV. Passages referred to abovethe Mu_javants are taken as a type of distant folk, towhich Rudra with his fever-bearing bow is entreated todepart. In fact Mu_javant is as far off and mysterious asthe river rasa_. Possibly both embody dim reminiscences ofthe undivided Indo-Iranian days.” (p. 217). Soma flourishedduring the rainy season, swelling with milk (RV. II.13,1),strengthened by the rain-cloud, parjanya (RV. IX.82,3;113,3). Yasna (X.3): ‘I praise the cloud and the watersthat made thy body to grow upon the mountains.’ Laterrituals state that Soma had to be purchased from a s’u_dra,who was a trader in Soma who was like the gandharva whoheld back the celestial Soma. (cf. ks.udraka = maker ofminute beads or minor work in gold (Arthas’a_stra: 2.13.37and 40).

There is a reference to ki_kat.as in the context of thesacrifice: ‘Amid ki_kat.as what do thy kine, O Indra? Thattribe nor mixture (a_sir or milk for mixing with Soma)pours nor heats oblation; bear thou to us the wealth ofpramaganda, give up, O Maghavan, to us the ‘low-branched’.(RV. III.53,14). Regarding the ritual purchase of the Soma,TS. 6,1,6,7 states that one buys the Soma with a ruddy,yellow-eyed cow; ‘this, one should know, is the form ofSoma: then one buys it with its own deity. That became

gold… Those who discourse on brahman say, ‘how is it thatoffspring are produced through that which is boneless, andyet are born with bones?’ Because one offers the gold,placing it in the ghee, therefore offspring are born… withbones.”

In the tradition of the Black Yajurveda, A_pS’. 10,25,11states that the adhvaryu should buy the Soma with goldsaying:“ I buy the bright (s’ukra, Soma) with bright(gold), the glittering (candra) with glittering, theamr.tam with amr.tam to match thy cow” (TS. 1,2,7,1); theSoma-dealer answers: “King Soma deserves more than that”.Adhvaryu washes king Soma with water and unfolds him(A_pA’. 11,1,11). “Every shoot of thee, O Soma, must swellfor Indra…” (TS. 1,2,11,1). The purpose of the yajn~a is: ‘by means of ghee as the vajra and two sacrificial ladles astheir arms the gods slew Vr.tra. Vr.tra is the Soma. Oneshould know that they slay Soma, when they sacrifice withghee in his presence. By means of these mantras one makesSoma swell again.” (TS. 6,2,2,4)

The Avestan references to Haoma as a plant can be explainedas a ritualistic representation of the Soma refiningprocess of the earlier days on the banks of the Sarasvatiriver. Yasna refers to the scent of the plant (Yasna, 10,4)but RV does not. There is, however, reference to theintense smell of the type common in the workshop of ametalsmith who uses ks.a_ra (plant-based alkalis) tooxidise the impurities or baser metals in an ore block.Griswold notes that there are only two references to haomain the Ga_tha_s of Zoroaster, one mentioning du_raos’a ‘the averter of death’ (Yasna, XXXII.14), the standingepithet of haoma in the later Avesta, and the otheralluding to ‘the filthiness f this intoxicant’(Yasna,XLVIII.10).These allusions are sufficient to prove that theintoxicating haoma was under the ban of the great reformer(H.D. Griswold,1923, The Religion of the Rigveda, London, OxfordUniversity Press, p. 14)

Next in importance to Agni and Indra, Soma is addressed inabout 120 hymns of the Rigveda. Indra and Varun.a gainanthropomorphic status as gods; but Soma is generallyrepresented in its physical nature.

Soma pavama_na. Soma in the process of passing through therefining instrument (potr.). [The actors are: Hotr.,

connected with Indra; the Potr. connected with the Maruts(Potr. is the purifying priest; also the ‘cleaning’insrument); the Nes.t.r. linked with Tvas.t.r.; the divinewives, agni_dh with agni, the brahman with Indra and thepras’a_s.t.r. with mitra-varun.a]. ulu_khala (mortar) isused to press Soma (RV. I.28,1,5; gra_van is rendered as a‘press-stone’). This is a reference to the pounding of theore block to pulverize the ore. In Yasna (XXIV.7; XXV.2)ha_vana (hu = to crush) is ‘the utensil in which the twigsof the haoma plant are pounded’. Another method refers tothe gra_va_n.ah (press-stones) are placed on the’ox-hide’,held by the hands and with ten fingers and activatedthrough two boards. (RV. X.76,94 and 175). Dhis.an.a_ (RV.X.17,12) is perhaps a reference to a hollow in which thepress-stones work. This may be a reference to a hollowcovered with ox-hide specially prepared on the sacrificialground. The ox-hide is refered to in RV. IX.79,4; IX.66,29;IX.101,11 and was used to catch the drops of Soma(apparently, the pulverized bits of the electrum oreblock). The later rituals state that the pressing-boardsare adhis.avan.a phalaka and are also laid across asounding-hole dug beneath (See Hillebrandt, VM. I.148). Areference to the sacrificial ground with the hollow ismirrored in the term: r.tasya yoni (RV. IX.64,11,22): thehome of the yajn~a. The reference to r.tasya dha_ra_ (RV.IX. 63,14,21) is a reference to the process of flowingthrough the wool strainer.

Indra’s outward appearance flowed away from his semen andbecame suvarn.am hiran.yam when he had drunk Soma that wasexposed to witching. (S’Br 13,1,1,4: S.Br. 12,7,1,1: retasaeva_sya ru_pam asravat; tat suvarnam hiran.yam abhavat; cf.J.Gonda, 1991, The Functions and Significance of Gold inthe Veda, Leiden, E.J.Brill, p. 5). [Note: S’Br. 12,7,2,10:lead (s’i_sa) is ‘a form of both bronze and gold’; ahi is asnake; na_ga is a snake; na_ga = lead (Skt.)] RV. 4,17,11relates how Indra gained cows, gold, troops of horses. WhenSoma purifies itself, Soma wins cattle, chariots, gold, thelight of heaven, and water for them (RV. 9,78,4). The riverSindhu is rich in excellent horses, good chariots, goodgarments, rich in gold (RV. 10,7,5,8). RV. 9,112,2 recountshow the blacksmith searches for a customer who possesses(much) gold. Gold is described as s’ukram hiran.yam (RV.8,65,11) or shining with a light of its own. “He who buysthe (Soma) with gold buys it as sas’ukram” (Taittiri_yaSam.hita_: 6,1,10,1). Even the sun is equated to gold:hiran.yam prati su_ryah (RV. 1,46,10: sun is equivalent to

gold). Agni is called hiran.yaru_pa (RV. 4,3,1: gold-like).Apa_m Napa_t (the Child, Descendant of the Waters) has aterrestrial form of the earthly fire and is associated withgold (RV. 2,35,10: hiran.yaru_pah; RV. 2.35,9:hiran.yavarn.a_h). Indra and Va_yu’s chariot (which is‘heaven-touching’) is made of gold (RV. 4,46,4). RV.2,35,10 reports that Apa_m napa_t in his earthlymanifestation as the sacrificial fire, comes out of thegolden yoni (yoni hiran.yaya which is Soma’s seat (RV.9,64,20).

References to electrum may be noticed in RV. 8,45,22 wherethe metal silver is called ‘whitish hiran.ya’; rajata isused as an adjective to mean ‘whitish, silver-coloured’.[See A_pS. 5,29,2 which states that rajatam hiran.yamshould not be given as a daks.in.a_.]

Pu_s.an has golden ships which sail in the sea (RV. 6,58,3)and bears an axe made of gold (RV. 1,42,6).RV. 9,86,43refers to Soma as hiran.yapa_va_h which can be interpretedas ‘purified golden Soma.’

Soma was poured through through a sieve made of wool. Everyhymn of Book IX of the Rigveda refers to the filteringthrough the strainer. (pavitra = sieve, means of purifying,filter; pu_ = to purify; pavate = he cleanses himself;pavama_na = self-purifying). References to filtering are in: RV. IX.1, 1 and 6; IX.28, 1,2,6. ‘Soma while filteringhimself, flows thousand-streamed, across the wool’ (RV.IX.13,1). In this filtering process, Soma is tawny incolour; and sounds like the thunder of the sky or thebellowing cattle. In RV. IX.97,33 the word ‘karman’ is usedto denote the toil involved in the sacrifice.

Soma is mixed with milk (gava_s’ir = addition of milk toSoma), curd and grain. These are intended to stoke theburning embers and to act as oxidizing agents to remove thebaser metals.

The rasa of the Soma is emphasized (RV. 8,3,20; 9,67,8; 15;9,76,1 describes the rasa as kr.tvya or efficacious, asdaks.a or ability. Somya rasa (RV. 9,67,8) is the ‘sap,which constitutes the essence, best, beneficial element ofSoma’. The colour of the rasa is hari (yellow, tawny)(RV.9,19,3; 9,25,1; 9,103,4; 9,78,2; 10,96,6 and 7. RV. 8,29,1refers to Soma as babhru (reddish-brown) and a youth who isapplying a golden ointment (an~ji… hiran.yayam) to himself.

RV. 9,107,4 refers to Soma as utsah hiran.yayah: a springof gold [Geldner, Rig-Veda ubers, K.F. Geldner, Der Rig-Veda ubersetzt, Cambridge, Mass., 1951, III, p. 110). RV.9,86,43: sindhor ucchva_se patayantam uks.an.amhiran.yapa_va_h pas’um a_su gr.bhn.ate: “purifiers of goldseize in them (i.e. the vasati_vari_ water left standingovernight) the animal (pas’u_), i.e. the bull (Soma) thatflies in the upheaving of the river.” Thus in this hymn,the gold which is purified referes to the juice of Somawhich is golden.

RV. 6,61,7 refers to Sarasvati_ as hiran.yavartani or oneendowed with a golden course. RV. 9,8,39; 38 implore Somato clarify itself while procuring gold.

RV. 9,75,3: ava dyuta_nah kalas’am acikradan nr.bhiryema_nah kos’a a_ hiran.yaye = Soma rushed down in the jarswith loud cries, held (in hands) by the men in the goldenvessel (kos’e).

Soma is pita_ deva_na_m (RV. IX.109,4) or father of thegods.

Hiran.yagarbha, the golden germ was evolved in thebeginning (RV. 10,121,1‘). Hiran.yagarbha is the title ofPraja_pati, who is declared as the only god who encompassesall the created things (ja_tah patir). “(he) who by hismight has ever been (babhu_va) the sole lord of the worldthat breathes and blinks, who rules over these two-footedand four-footed (beings), to what god shall we pay homagewith oblation?” (RV. 10,121,3). This reference isconsidered by some to be a later addition. (for e.g., cf.Edgerton, F., The Beginnings of Indian Philosophy, London,1965). The Being who evolved in the beginning is also thelord of the snow-clad mountains, the ocean and the riverRasa_. He is the fashioner who tied heaven and heaven. Whenthe waters moved producing Agni, from the waters evolvedthe asu (life-principle?) of the gods. [Note the use ofam.s’u as an epithet of Soma.] Hiran.yagarbha is the onlygod over the gods: yo_ deves.v adhi deva eka asi_t.

Rigveda riddled with allegory and metaphor enters thephilosophical domain with these descriptions ofHiran.yagarbha. Post-Rigvedic texts and philosophicaltracts abound in references to Hiran.yagarbha as attestedby J. Gonda (opcit., ppo. 217-246). Ma_nava S’rautasu_tra(MS. 6,2,3,9) stipulates the use of stanzas 1,3, 2-7 of RV.

10,121 Hiran.yagarbha su_kta) in connection with thenaturally perforted ‘brick’ (agnicayana). It has beenargued elsewhere that the perforated bricks are integral tothe later-day alchemical processes of transmuting basermetals into gold. (Kalyanaraman, opcit., in press)

Arthas'a_stra states: pure and impure silver may be heatedfour times with copper sulphate, mixed with powdered bone(asthituttha)again four times with an equal quantity oflead and again four times with dry copper sulphate(sushkatuttha), again three times in skull nd lastly twicein cow dung. (Stanza 88). The use of the skull which iscalcium phosphate is a cupellation process for purificationof ilver. Galena was first smelted to crude lead and silverconcentrated by a process called Pattinson Process. Theproess is based on the act that i fused argentiferous leadis cooled, a point is reached when nearly pure leadseparates in crystals. If crystals of lead were ithdrawn byperforated ladles the remaining liquid alloy would becomeincreasingly rich in silver. About 7/8ths of the originallead is emoved by this process and the rest of the lead isreoved by cupellation process. Separation of silver andother impurities from gold (electrum) was invented beforeAmarna age, possibly during or shortly after Ur III period(ca. 2200-2000 B.C.)

"Sumerian literary texts refer to gold from Aratta(Pettinato 1972: 79). Gudea records receiving gold from themountain of Hah(h)um (Statue B, col. VI. 33-5; Liverani1988), taken to lie in that part of modern Turkey nearSamsat on the Upper Euphrates, and from Meluhha... Varioustexts refer to the almost mythical land of gold known as(H)arallu, perhapssomewhere in the Iranian hinterland(Komoroczy 1972; Groneberg 1980: 20)...Documents relevantto the Dilmun, trade in the later third and earlier secondmillennium BC indicate that some gold was still reaching Urup the Gulf at this time, but whence it came, perhapsMeluhha, is not stated (Oppenheim 1954: 7; Leemans 1960:120-1, is more cautious). The renowned resources of Egyptand Nubia (cf. Lucas 1962: 224-8) contributed mostcertainly in the fourteenth century BC to Mesopotamianroyal gold holdings (Edzard 1960; Wilhelm 1974)...Thetribes of Hama were richer in gold than those of Harran..."(Moorey, 1994, opcit, p. 220).

Gold in the civilization

Gold objects recorded from Mohenjo-daro, Harappa,Chanhudaro, Lothal and Kunal are:bangles/bracelets,pendants, amulets andnecklaces, armlets, ear-pendants, ear-rings, earstuds, beads, brooch, fillets, finger-rings,terminals, caps, netting needles, cone, gold foil/goldleaves, pin, waste pieces of gold.

The terms connoting gold in Rigveda are: hiran.ya,suvarn.a,ja_taru_pa, candra,harita. Gold objects mentioned in theRigveda are: rukma (golden chain or disk), nis.ka (neck-ornament of gold beads or coins), sraj (gold stringinterspersed with jewels).

Soma, the heavenly nectar of life in golden jars (kalas’a)is the fountain of gold: “Soma flows on for us as winner ofthe kine, winner of thousands, ears, water, and light, andgold; He whom the Gods have made a gladdening draught todrink, the drop most sweet to taste, weal-bringing, red ofhue.” (RV. IX. 78.4; Griffith, RV, Vol. II, p. 335).

Nis.ka-gri_va connotes a gold ornament worn on the neck,won through soma:

“Svaitreya’s people, all his men, have gloriously increasedin might. A gold chain Br.haduktha wears, as through hisSoma, seeking spoil.” (RV. V.19.3; Griffith, RV, Vol. I,p.482). Perhaps, nis.ka was also a currency (RV. I.126.2).Gold is used in the purchase of Soma: S’rautasu_tras:Baudha_yana (6.12-13; 14-15); Bha_radva_ja (10.16.2-18.14);A_pastamba (10.24.1-27.8); Ka_tya_yana (7.7.3-8.25): “Afterhaving handed over king Soma to the Soma-seller, theAdhvaryu should ask him: “O, Soma-seller, is your somaavailable for purchase? He should reply: “It is availablefor purchase.” The Adhvaryu should (offer to) purchas itfor ten (objects), (namely) seven cows and the three(objects, that is to say), gold, a piece of cloth, and ashe-goat...” (Satya_s._ad.ha, .2)(R.N.Dandekar,S’rautakos’a, vol.II, pt. I, p. 129).

The place of sacrifice is also golden (RV. V.67.2;IX.64.20). Even weapons are of gold. “The kanvas sing forthagni’s praise together with our maruts’ who wield thunderand wear swords of gold.” (RV. VIII.7.32). Gold is wonfrom the earth, washed and cleaned and purified (RV.I.117.5).(cf. M.N.Banerjee, “On Metals and Metallurgy inAncient India”, Indian Historical Quarterly, Vol. III,March 1927, no. 1, p. 123).

[Ball writes: “Gold is mined for, in quartz veins 3 milesto the north of kandahar city... The gold is sometimeschiselled out in pure granules and sometimes in largenuggets...” (V. Ball, Manual of the Geology of India, III,pp. 208-9). Ball also refers to an old record of thediscovery of a gold mine in Afghan Seistan and also notesBannu, Peshawar, Hazara, Rawalpindi, Jhelam, Ambala andcertain Punjab Himalayan princely states such as Kangra asgold-panning centres.]

Gold is won from the rivers; Sindhu was full of golden bedsand hence is called ‘golden’ and ‘of golden stream’ (RV.X.75.8; VI.61.7; VIII.26.18). “Rich in good steeds isSindhu, rich in cars and robes, rich in gold, nobly-fashioned, rich in ample wealth”. (RV. X.75.8). “This riverwith his lucid flow attracts you more than all the streams.Even Sindhu with his path of gold.” (RV. VIII.26.18).

The path is golden (hiran.yavartani)(RV.I.92.18; V.75.2;3;VIII.5.11;8.1). Praja_pati is the progenitor of theuniverse and is hiran.yagarbha (the golden foetus): “in thebeginning rose hiran.yagarbha, born only Lord of allcreated beings. He fixed and holdeth up this earth andheaven what God shall we adore with our oblation.” (RV.X.121.1; Griffith, RV, Vol. II, p. 566).

Gold (hiran.yam) was the objective of the Vedic singers(RV. VI.47.23; VII.78.9). The prayers refer to gold thatglitters (RV. X.107.7), that gives wealth (RV. II.34.11;VII.66.8), that is self-luminous (RV. V.87.5). The singersseek: “The Sea and all the Deities shall give us him withthe golden ear and neck bejewelled. Dawns, hasting to thepraises of the pious, be pleased with us, both offerers andsingers.” (RV. I.122.14; Griffith, RV, Vol. I, p. 169)

Gods Indra, Mitra, Varun.a etc. were often described asgolden in hue (RV. I.46.10; I. 167.3; I.139.2; II.35.10;IV.3.1; IV.10.6; VI.16.38; VII.45.2; X.20.9) driving fromgolden seats (RV. IV.46.4; VIII.5.28; VIII.22.9) in goldenchariots (RV. I.30.16; I.35.2; 56.1; 139.4; IV.1.8;IV.44.4; IV.44.5; VI.29.2; VIII.1.24; VI.66.1; VIII.33.4;VIII.46.24), having shafts or poles (RV. I.35.4; 5;VIII.5.29), wheels and axles all bright as gold (RV.I.64.11; 105.1; 139.3; 180.1; VI.56.3; VIII.5.29) withgolden reins for the horses (RV. VIII.22.5) who had golden

manes (RV. I.122.14) and were bedecked with goldenornaments.

Gods As’vins and Maruts and the asuras alike adornedthemselves with magnificent jewellery using gold rings(RV. VIII.32.29) gold ear-rings (RV. VII.56.13; I.166.10;I.64.11; V.54.11; II.34.3; VI. 16.38) golden necklets andarmlets (RV. VII.56.13; I.166.10; I.64.11; V.54.11;II.34.3; VI.16.38). “Your rings, O maruts, rest upon yourshoulders, and chains of gold twined upon your bosoms.Gleaming with drops of rain, like lightning-flashes, afteryour wont ye whirl about your weapons.” (RV.VII.56.13;Griffith, RV, Vol. II, p.55)

References to pur (urban settlement), ayas (metal), andsamudra (sea) in the Rigveda indicate that the culture wasnot exclusively pastoral but had sea-faring, tradingactivities and used metals to build-up urban settlements:

varma si_vyadhvam. bahula_ pr.thu_ni purah kr.n.udhavama_yasi_radhr.is.t.a_ (RV. X. 101.8)

‘stitch ye the coats of armor, wide and many; make metallicforts, secure from all assailants’.

ra_yah samudra_ns’chaturo asmabhyam soma vis’vatah a_pavasva sahasrin.ah (RV. IX. 33.6)

‘from every side, O Soma, for our profit, pour thou forthfour seas filled full of riches thousandfold’.

Sources of gold: Coimbatore (Hadabanatta, Kavudahalli andnear Porsegaundanpalayam), Wynaad and Kolar (Marshall 1931:674). “South of the Caucasus, in Armenia, the famous metalworkers, the Chalybes, are credited with rich mines. Thisprobably means the deposits near the Taldjen River, closeto Artwin... The Muruntau mountains in the Kyzyl Kum deserthas the largest deposit of gold (Forbes 1971: 166; Kalesnikand Pavlenko 1976: 202)... The discovery of the famousFullol Hoard in the Hindu Kush of northern Afghanistan(Tosi and Waradak 1972: 9-17) contained a number of goldobjects with Mesopotamian and South Turkmenian motifs. Thisproves that the region (the Oxus basin—northern Hindu Kush)was as important to the Middle East for gold as it was forlapis lazuli. Incidentally, the Harappan trading posts atShortugai are also in the same region (Francfort and Potter1978:29).

Gold, silver Lead

Gold is known at Mokar, Afghanistan. (T.A. Wertime, Science182, 1973, p. 884). "X-ray micro-analysis has shown thatinclusions in the bead are composed of an alloy ofplatinum-iridium-osmium and gold. These three metals formrare alloys, found mostly in placer deposits...suppliesfrom this area could have joined caravans carrying lapis-lazuli using Helmand valley route via Shahr-i-Sokhta to thePersian gulf and then have arrived by the ships carryingthe lapis, carnelian, tin and gold from Meluhha to Sumer."(K.R. Maxwell-Hyslop, Sources ofSumerian Gold, Iraq, XXXIX,1977, p.p.85-86).

"Gold from the north and from Egypt, as well as silver andthe other metals, has been discovered in large quantitiesin the royal tombs of Ur. The Sumerians already knew how torefine it and remove its impurities. Certain objects fromthe royal tombs at Ur--the headdress of Meskalamdug, forexample--are very solid, but very often gold was usedsimply for 'gilding'. At Khorsabad, for example, thebitumen-coated trunks of palm trees were covered with abronze facing that simulated the scales of the palm tree;then gold leaf, annealed to make it flexible, was burnishedand nailed to this bronze facing with small nails.

"Silver, more common than gold, was used in the samemanner; before coins came into existence it was a unit ofexchange used for the payment of purchases, as by barter.Refining of gold was necessary in view of the impuritiesthis metal contained; King Burraburias of Babyloncomplained to Amenhotel IV (circa 1370-1352 BC) that thegold received from him contained three-quarters of itsweight in impurities. The fine gold used in the objectsfound in the tombs at Ur was approximately 75 percent puregold. The refining method used was a variant of ourcupellation, as is indicated by the purification of fiveminas of gold by means of successive stages in the furnace;on the first round the gold was reduced to four minas, fiveshekels, on the second to three and two-thirds minas. TheMesopotamians knew how to alloy and harden gold, whichpermitted it to be used for weapons." (Maurice Daumas,opcit, p. 133).

"...ancient empires... began to concentrate upon importingthe crude metals from these distant smelters. The rulers of

the city-states would then release the imported rawmaterial to their own metal-workers for finishing... Forthe efficient extraction of metals from their ores someform of furnace is needed and, for certain purposes, thefire must be forced by draught. In the simplest operationsof smelting, the pieces of ore are mixed in layers with thefuel, and the metal is afterwards collected in a lump fromthe hearth... Metal-workers were among the earliestspecialists in craftsmanship. Neolithic farmers or theirwomen had woven and spun, made their own shoes and pots,and dug their own flint, but the advent of the smithushered in a new era, in which the urban civilizationsof the great river valleys rapidly developed. Thenceitinerant smiths ventured into the barbarian fringe to seekores, and thus spread knowledge of the working of thesecoloured stones. The awe in which smiths were held isreflected in innumerable legends...

"Strabo and others report that, in the Caucasus, alluvialdeposits were worked by washing over a layer of fleeces.The gold particles would adhere to the grease in the wool--hence the basis of the legend of the Golden Fleece... Incupellation, lead is added to the crude gold, and themetals fused together in a porous clay crucible or cupel.The lead and other base metals are oxidized by a current ofair. The resulting molten litharge, containing all thebase-metal oxides, is partly blown off by a blast of air,and partly absorbed by the walls of the cupel, leaving abutton of refined gold or, if silver was originally presentin the ore, of gold alloyed with silver. Agatharchides(second century BC) is quoted by Diodorus (III, 14, 3-4) asdescribing the removal of silver as well as the base metalsby a modification of the cupellation process: 'The workersplace the crude gold in a clay vessel, and add a mass oflead, a little salt and tin, and barley husks. Then it isclosed with a tight-fitting lid, sealed with lute, andheated for five days and nights in a furnace. After asuitable interval for cooling, nothing is found of theother materials in the vessel, but only pure gold'(Abbreviated).

"Evidently, at any rate in the first stage of thisoperation, while the access of air is prevented, thecarbonaceous barley would act as a reducing agent. In thisperiod, the metals would be fused and the silver convertedto silver chloride by the salt. Later, we must suppose thatair is admitted, perhaps through cracks; the barley husks

would then burn away, and the base metals would be oxidizedand absorbed by the crucible. Perhaps the lid is finallyremoved, and the heating continued for a short periodlonger to bring about the cupellation...

Silver and lead were closely associated because both wereobtained from the same mineral, galena. This ispredominantly lead sulphide, but usually has a smallproportion of silver. Its occurrence is widespread, and itis often associated with copper ores. Its brilliantmetallic appearance may have attracted the attention of theearly copper-smelters. The few galena depsits of Egypt wereworked for eye-paint only, and in any case the leadproduced later from these ores contained little silver...

"It is doubtful whether the rich deposits of India,Afghanistan, and Persia played a part in the ancient NearEast, where much more importance must be attached to themany galena deposits rich in silver in the Armenianmountains, and in the central part of western Asia Minor.Classical tradition and archaeological evidence both pointto north-eastern Asia Minor as the birthplace of silver.The 'land of the Chalybes', so important an early centre ofmetallurgy, was the mining district of the Hittites, whosevery capital bears a name written with the ideogram forsilver. Asia Minor held an almost complete monopoly ofsilver production, and Sumerian and Assyrian cities senttheir merchants to the Hittites to acquire the silver andlead produced in that country.

"Earlier potentates like Sargon the Great and Gudea, rulerof Lagash, dispatched expeditions to acquire these metalsin the 'silver mountains' of Armenia. The Cappadociantablets (ca. 2000 BC), however, show that there were atthat time permanent settlement of Mesopotamian merchants inthe land of the Hittites, buying crude and refined silver,pure lead, and pigs of lead, all in sealed in containers toprevent pilfering during transport. From the accounts, itis evident that several qualities were produced.

The silver was usually sold in bars, and about four timesas much silver as lead was sent to the home country...

"By the first millennium BC, silver and lead were commonmetals all over the Near East, except in Egypt, where thephase of metallurgy was delayed for another 400 years.Theamounts of these metals taken in tribute and booty by

the Assyrian king Tukulti Ninurta II (889-884 BC) affordevidence of extensive production. Between 400 and 1000 kgof lead and 100 kg of silver were captured during hisexpedition into the northern mountains, which shows thatthe region between Lake Van and Lake Urmia was alreadyproducing them in large quantities. In Egypt, on the otherhand, though importation had begun, the comparative valueof silver to gold was still as high as 1:2 at the time ofthe Persian occupation. The Persian victory of Egypt tookadvantage of this strange situation, and enriched himselfby introducing a silver coinage into the country.

"Supplies of silver became plentiful in Egypt only inHellenistic times, when the price of silver dropped to onlyone-thirteenth of that of gold. The production ofsilver and lead was responsible for the introduction intogeneral metallurgy of the methods of working sulphide oresand of cupellation. The working of galena entails partialdesulphurization by roasting, followed by reduction of theproduct, litharge (lead oxide). A simple hearth-furnace ora sloping trench sufficed. The fule and ore werethoroughly mixed together, or built up in alternate layers.Natural or artificial blast supplied the necessary air. Aproportion of the sulphur escaped as sulphur dioxide, butsome remained as unchanged galena and lead sulphate. Whenthe correct stage of desulphurization was reached, thetemperature was raised, and the litharge, lead sulphate,and galena interacted to form lead, which collected at thebottom of the furnace, while the remaining sulphur escapedas sulphur dioxide. The charcoal added as fuel wouldprevent re-oxidation. The product was a lead-silver alloyharder than pure lead; it contained many impurities, suchas antimony, copper, tin and arsenic. This ancient processcombined the two modern stages of roasting and reduction.Though the technique was comparatively simple, the chemicalreactions were correspondingly complex, and the ancienmetallurgist had not yet sufficient knowledge to controlthem fully. The inevitable result was a small yield...silver was obtained from silver-bearing lead bycupellation. The litharge slag could be used as such, orreduced with charcoal to lead. Finds of pure silver at Ur,at Troy (six bars of puresilver), and at other places, aswell as historical data, lead us to conclude thatcupellation was invented in north-eastern Asia Minor in thefirst half of the third millennium BC.

"The firing-pot and the drossing of base metals arefrequently mentioned in the Bible (Prov. xvii.3; Jer.vi.29-30; Ps.xii.6). By about 60 BC, cupellation was wellknown. Liquation, a method of extracting gold and silverfrom other sources such as certain crude coppers, wasperhaps also known at this time in the Near East. Itinvolved alloying the crude metal with lead and slowlymelting it. The lead flowed away with the precious metalsin solution, leaving a porous mixture of the remaining basemetals. Liquation was followed by cupellation...

The silver:gold value-ratio gives an interesting indicationof the supply of silver. It was comparatively high in theearlier periods in Mesopotamia (1:8), and rose still higherto 1:6, in the reign of Hammurabi, perhaps because ofdisorder in Asia Minor and Armenia. It fell soon afterwardsto 1:10, and remained at that level for a very long period.In Neo-Babylonian and Persian times the ratio variedbetween 1:12 and 1:13." (Charles Singer, et al (eds.), AHistory of Technology, Oxford Clarendon Press, 1954, pp. 576-585).

Map depicting iron, silver and copper mines and ancientsettlements of Mesopotamia and Anatolia. The clustering ofcopper mines west of Afghanistan and of iron mines inwestern Anatolia is analogous to the clustering of coppermines in Rajasthan area and of iron mines in the Ganga-Yamuna doab (Bihar).

Miniature jar fitted with a cork-like,hollow, baked clay stopper; containing microbeads mixedwith fine ash; the jar was buried under a house floor atZekda (23.53N and 71.26E), Banaskanta District, Gujarat (Hegde, K.T.M. et al, 1982, Pl. 21.2.

Gold jewellery, Mohenjodaro (After Marshall, Pl.CXLVIII).The jewellery was found in a silver vase. Thelarge necklace is made up of barrel-shaped beads of atranslucent, light-green jade. Each jade bead is separatedfrom its neighbours on either side by five disc-shaped goldbeads, 0.4 in. dia made by soldering two cap-like piecestogether. Seven pendants of agate-jasper are suspended bymeans of a thick gold wire. The pendants are separated onefrom another by a small cylindrical bead of steatite cappedat each end with gold. The smaller necklace (No. 7) insidethe large one is made up of small globular gold beads, allof which are cast. The spacers were made by soldering twoof these beads together, and it is probable that the beadswere originally strung into a bracelet of two rows. Thetwo bangles (Nos. 1 and 4) were each made of thin sheetgold wrapped over a core (dia. 3 in.) No.2 is a conicalgold cap (1.3 in. high) beaten out from a plate of gold; itis perhaps a hair ornament.

Two silver bracelets were also found with thishoard. (Marshall, Pl. CLXIV)

Silver vase, Mohenjodaro (After Marshall, Pl.CXLVIII). The silver vase contained gold jewellery.

Jewellery, Mohenjodaro (After Marshall, Pl.CXLIX). No.3 is a gold bracelet. (Other bracelets are madeof blue glazed faience or a vitrified clay, dark brown orblack on the surface, sometimes with very minuteinscriptions). The gold spacers found with these beads showthat they were originally threaded in six rows with semi-circular terminals of gold. The small beads were cast andthe spacers cut out of sheet metal. No.4 below thisbracelet is made of minute gold beads, globular andcylindrical in shape, interspaced with tiny globular beadsof steatite, perhaps of original blue glaze. The smallcylindrical pendants on the necklace are made of gold andglaze; the loops of thin gold ribbon wire. No.5 is of beadsof various coloured stones, such as riband-jasper andcarnelian, alternating with small gold beads; some beadsare capped with gold. No. 6 is a string made of gold andglazed steatite cylindrical beads in five rows held byeight five-holed spacers. No. 7 is of flat gold beads,beads of onyx, green felspar and turquoise matrix and smallglobular beads. Nos. 1 and 2 are dome-shaped caps of thependants with small gold loops inside. (After Marshall, Pl.CXLIX).

From inside out: No.1: A necklace of very finebeads of jade, jasper, carnelian, chalcedony and agate. Thefirst bead is of gold; No. 2: beads of jasper, carnelian,

agate, lapis-lazuli and six of silver; No.3: stones ofdiverse materials, colours and shapes including twocleverly cut onyx eye-beads; No.4: extraordinary variety inshape, markings and colour. A long flat bead, oval insection was a favourite shape. This necklace also includesseveral skilfully cut 'cat's eye' onyx beads. (AfterMarshall, Pl. CL). Silver was used more freely than gold atMohenjodaro. Maybe, silver was extracted from sulphide orchloride form, mixed with metals such as lead or copper.Gold used in Mohenjodaro, resembles electrum.

At a are specimens of fillets consisting of thinbands of beaten gold with holes for cords at their endsThelong carnelian beads of the necklace or girdle are 4.85 in.in length by 0.4 in. dia. The shorter beads are 3.25 in. inlength. These beads are of a bright translucent red colour.They were bored from both ends, the holes averaging 0.17in. dia. At each of the necklace or girdle there is a semi-circular terminal of hollow bronze like a flattened cup.The globular beads at each end of the stone ones are ofbronze. Nos. 7, 8 and 11 are gold studs, 1.2 in. dia.apparently intended for the ears. Nos. 3-5 and 12-14 aregold needles. A number of bead-caps made of gold, coppery-red to pale yellow in colour are above No.9 which is aturquoise bead capped with gold. (After Marshall, Pl. CLI).

Jewellery, Mohenjodaro. No. 13 shows waste piecesof metal, probably the hoard of a goldsmith. (AfterMarshall, Pl. CLII).

Beads: terracotta, shell, ivory, copper, silver,gold, steatite, Harappa and Ur (After Vats, Pl. CXXXIV).

Beads: steatite disc, painted steatite, faience:black, yellow, white, variegated, blue or green (AfterVats, Pl. CXXXIII).

Beads: natural steatite, burnt steatite (AfterVats, Pl. CXXXII).

Beads: agate, carnelian, jasper, chert,chalcedony, milky quartz, etched carnelian, limestone,stalagmite, marble, calcite, hornblende, serpentine,deorite, lapis and jadeite (After Vats, Pl. CXXXI).

Miscellaneous beads, Harappa (After Vats, Pl.CXXVIII).

Long barrel-cylinder beads from the Royal Gravesof Ur; Akkadian Period (ca. 2250-1894 B.C.); 'a' is of darkgreen stone; bead 'b' is carnelian and 6.4 cm. long; bead'c' is carnelian; Chakrabarti, D.K. 1982, Pl. 24.2. (UPennMuseum: 30-12-566 and 567; 32-40-227)

Terracotta figurines, Mohenjodaro, wearingjewellery (cf. Allchin, 1982, Fig. 8.14)

Jewellery from House 2, Trench IV, Mound F,Harappa (After Vats, Pl. CXXXVII).

Personal ornaments, unguent vases andinlay objects, Harappa (After Vats, Pl. CXXXVIII andCXXXIX).

Gold bead; Early Dynastic necklace from the Royal Cemetery;now in the Leeds collection.

Gold jewellery (two views) found in a Royal Tomb, Ur; theeight-petalled star is a motif found also in Kunal,Haryana, India.

Partly excavated burial of a lady-in-waiting to a Sumerianroyal family of 2500 B.C. was moved intac from Ur to theUniversity Museum of Pennsylvania. Amid the rich ornamentsof gold may be seen the teeth of their wearer. From: SamuelNoah Kramer, 1957, The Sumerians in: Old World Archaeology,Readings from Scientific American, San Francisco, WHFreeman and Co.

Sumerian electrum helmetfrom the Royal Cemetery at Ur; early Dynastic III Period,ca. 2400 B.C.; After Prichard 1969b: 49, no.160; Parpola,1994, p. 254. This helmet was made of beaten gold, in theform of a wig with a most elaborate hair-style. There is aknot of hair tied at the back, a twisted plait and aheadband, and there are guards for ears and cheeks. Itbelonged to Mes-kalam-dug, the 'Hero of the Good Land'; hewas perhaps a prince; a cylinder-seal with his name waslater found in a queen's grave.

Ur, Ram in the thicket, Upenn MuseumThe tiara from Kunal has eight petals and is reminiscentof the tiara in Pu-abi’s graveIn Ur. A similar eght-petalled tiara adorrns the ‘ram inthe thicket’ made of gold plate, also found in Ur,Mesopotamia.

Kunal: Silverornaments

Kunal: spiralled silver bangles

Discular beads of gold with axialperforation, Mature Harappan, Lothal

Discular beads of silverwith axial perforation, Early Harappan, Kunal

Perforated jar (Use in gold purification, parase).Its use will be further explained in the lexicon. (Pots andpans301kb.)

Potable gold:‘golden fleece’ and replicating age-old processes in a GoldMuseum

“...the origin of the legend of the Golden Fleece...TheArgonaut legend was known to Homer...the search was forgold and woolled sheepskins were suspended in a stream tocollect gold dust from running water. The skin was thensuspended between trees to allow it to dry. Support forthis view (which was first put forward by Strabo (xi.2.19;who died in AD 19) is gained from the statement in thelegend that, when Jason snatched the golden fleece ‘fromthe shimmering of the locks of wool there settled on hisfair cheeks and brow a red flush like a flame.’... finerfleeces tend to have more grease; gold particles being noteasily wetted, would stick readily to the grease. Sandparticles on the other hand are wetted and would not stick(Barnes, J.W. 1973: Jason and the Gold Rush, Proc. Geol.Assn., 84, 482-5). (M.L.Ryder, The last word on the goldenfleece legend? in: Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 10,No. 1, March 1991, pp. 57-60).

Alchemical tradition is documented in a text dated to themid-second millennium BC in Mesopotamia; this isreminiscent of the Rigvedic agnis.t.oma which lasts fordays and nights!

“For 5 shekels of pappardillu stone you mix one-third minaof mountain honey, 10 shekels of TA, one su_tu of milk, 4shekels of red alkali and one-half sila of wine...You teston glowing charcoal... you pour into a stone bowl ofalgamis’u-stone (steatite)...lute with dough...you heat itfor a full day on a smokeless fire. You take out and..forfive days, it is (not?) reliable. You soak it in(liquid)...You boil alum and...in vinegar. You steep (thestone) in lapis lazuli-coloured liquid and place it in the

fire...Property of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.” (Text1, Bab. K. 713; A. Leo Oppenheim, RA, 60, 1966, pp. 29-45).

Ams’u! Leaf formation ongold from the Mother Lode, Nevada country, California(Encyclopaedia Britannica). “Gold in rocks usually occursin invisible disseminated grains, more rarely as flakeslarge enough to be seen and even more rarely as masses orveinlets. Crystals about 2.5 cm. (1 inch) or more acrosshave been found in California.”

Quartz containing goldore

Pellets of gold ore (which look likeplant stems)

Mortar and pestle used to crushthe quartz

. Molten gold being poured from a crucibleinto a vessel

Pouring molten gold froma crucible into mould

Gold nuggets

Touchstone to test the quality of gold

Purification of electrum: ancient metallurgical processesrelated to gold, silver, lead

Sources of Sumerian gold (2nd half of 3rd millennium BC)“...(gold) bead...alloy of platinum-iridium-osmium andgold...found mostly in placer deposits.. At Muteh...NW ofIsfahan..most important deposits of gold known... Damghanlies on the lapis-lazuli trade route to Mesopotamia...lapis mines along the Kokcha river in the Afghan HinduKush... apart from possible Arabian and Indian gold.. Goldis known at Mokar and supplies from this area could havejoined caravans carrying lapis-lazuli using the Helmandvalley route via Shahr-i-Sokhta to the Persian gulf andthen have arrived by the ships carrying the lapis,carnelian, tin and gold from Meluhha to Sumer.” (K.R.Maxwell-Hyslop, Iraq, XXXIX, 1977, pp. 83-86).

Pliny described electrum as an alloy of gold and silverwith one part of silver to four of gold. Normally, inmineralogy, argentiferous gold containing 20-25 per cent ofsilver is referred to as electrum. “Many of the rareanalyses of Mesopotamian ‘gold’ show that it is in factelectrum, but whether a natural or a deliberate alloy isnot invariably clear... Silver may only be separated fromgold by a complicated process; but base metals may beslagged off by repeated meltings of native gold in anoxidizing atmosphere, routine in many goldsmithingtechniques. Natural electrum can have a susbtantial coppercontent... Gold, whose distribution is almost universal,occurs either in veins of quartz rock (reef gold) or inalluvial sands and gravel (placer gold); a distinctionfound in the textual sources (hura_s.um s’a abnisu;hura_s.um s’a ma’e_s’u)... In its native state gold isalways alloyed with silver in proportions that varygreatly; sometimes also with copper and traces of iron andother metals... Reef gold occurs as irregular masses inquartz veins or lodes. The mining process consists first offreeing the gold particles by crushing and sifting the ore,then of separating the gold by making use of the metal’shigher density. The classic description of gold-mining inantiquity is that by Agatharcides, preserved by DiodorusSiculs (iii.12-14, 3-4) who, in the second century BC,visited and graphically described the rigours of gold-mining in Egypt (cf. Lucas 1962: 224ff.)... (Royal cemeteryat Ur)... a spearhead (U.9122) has 30.30 per cent gold,59.37 per cent silver, and 10.35 per cent copper (Woolley1934: 294: table III). The famous rein-ring from RT 800

(Pu-abi) has an equid of electrum (whether natural orartificial is an open question), comprising 65.60 per centgold, 31.45 per cent silver, and 2.65 per cent copper,whilst the ring on which it stands is virtually sterlingsilver (93.5 per cent silver, 6.10 per cent coper, and 0.08per cent gold). Bowls from PG 755 are also gold-silver-copper alloys (Woolley 1934: 294)... Cupellation willremove metals from silver or gold, but by itself will notremove silver; adding salt enables silver to be removedfrom gold (cementation)...

Agatharcides (2nd century BC) describes how in Egypt gold-bearing ore was found and washed until more or less puregold dust remained. This dust was put “into earthen pots.They mix with this a lump of lead according to the mass,lumps of salt, a little tin and barley bran. They put on aclosely-fitting lid carefully smearing it with mud and heatit in a furnace for five days and nights continuously; thenthey allow the pots to cool and find no residual impuritiesin them; the gold they recover in a pure state with littlewastage. This processing of gold is carried on round aboutthe most distant boundaries of Egypt.” (Healy 1978, 154)“The procedure was tested in 1974 (Notton 1974) with analloy of copper and silver containing 37.5% of gold. It wasfound that heating the pots filled with the alloy and saltgave the highest gold recovery rate of 93%. Including tin,lead or charcoal reduced the efficienty to less than 80%.Healy concluded that the account given by Agatharcides‘seems to be an example of the conflation of at least twoprocesses’ (154)..Arthas’a_stra mentions salt among thearticles necessary for purifying gold: KA 02.14.23mu_kamu_s.a_ pu_tikit.t.ah karat.ukamukham na_li_sam.dam.s’o jon:gani_ suvarcika_lavan.am tad eva suvarn.amity apasa_ran.a ma_rga_h”. (Diodorus—III,14,3-4; loc. cit.Harry Falk, Refining gold in ancient India : ad JUB 3.17,3in: Acta Orientalia 1997: 58, 47-51).

Barley husks would burn away and the base metals oxidizedand absorbed by the crucible (silver is converted to silverchloride by the salt.) (R.J. Forbes, in: Singer et al., Ahistory of Technology, 1954, pp. 573-587).

For cupellation, the gold is alloyed with lead in a specialclay vessel, known as a cupel, and the product oxidized bya strong current of air blown into the surface of themolten metal. The base metals are consumed, or drossed, asthe oxides formed are absorbed by the porous walls of the

cupel, whilst gold and silver survive. Precisely what formcementation took before the classical authors offerdescriptions of it (Diodorus Siculus, III.xiv.1f. (afterAgatharcides); Strabo, III.ii.8) is a matter of continuingdebate. Notton (Notton, JHF, 1974, Ancient Egyptian GoldRefining: a reproduction of early techniques, GoldBulletin, 7(2), 50 ff.) experimented with the methoddescribed by Diodorus Siculus and it proved verysuccessful. A series of tests were conducted in a nine-carat alloy (in the absence of a suitable gold ore). In thefirst, salt and the gold alloy were smelted under variouscircumstances. After five days heating at 800deg. C, goldrecovery was high. It was less so when salt, brick dust,and the alloy were used and also when tin and lead wereadded in two different ways. The presence of tin to agreater extent, lead to a lesser, inhibited the recoveryrate. On the evidence of these experiments, earliersuggestions about ancient methods of cementation gain extracredence. The Sardis excavators argued that ‘the gold ishammered into thin sheets, which are then stacked in avessel with layers of dry ‘pickling mixture’ like commonsalt or alum, and heated for a long time, c. 700 deg. C.Silver especially combines with salts and the gold is leftpure (Ramage A. 1970, ‘Pactolus North’ in GMA Hanfmann andJC Waldbaum, ‘The Eleventh and Twelfth Campaigns at Sardis’(1968,1969), Bulletin of American Schools of OrientalResearch (Jerusalem and Baghdad) 199: 22-3) . Comparabletechniques may have been current in Mesopotamia by at leastthe Old Babylonian period, to judge from the appearance inthe Mari texts of the term lurpianu (a salt?), which isassociated with the preparation of gold in contextssuggesting cupellation or a comparable process (Limet.H.,1986, Textes administratifs relatifs aux metaux (ArchivesRoyales de Mari 25, Paris): 288)... The role of assaying inancient Mesopotamia, in which a sample is removed foranalysis, is no clearer. Assay by fire, used in aqualitiative not a quantitiave way, is described in theLeyden Papyrus (X, no. 3: Oddy, W.A., 1983, Assaying inAntiquity, Gold Bulletin, 16(2), 52-9), but how early suchtests were used is unknown: ‘If the gold is pure, it keepsthe same colour and remains pure like coinage afterheating. If it appears whiter it contains silver; ifrougher and harder, it contains copper and tin; if blackand soft, it contains lead.’ The use of a touchstone (LapisLydius, i.e. black chert) to test the relative purity ofgold (its approximate carat value in modern terms) isattested by classical authors from at least the sixth

century BC (Theognis, 417; Pindar, Pythian, X.67).Theophrastus (de Lapidus,45) attributes them to the riverTmolus in TUrkey. In this case it is siliceous schist(flinty state), black in colour, usually for this purposedeep black, fine-grained; but other black stones may beused.. Streaks are taken from gold alloys of known, gradedcomposition for comparison with streaks taken from themetal to be assayed (cf. Oddy 1983; Moore and Oddy 1985)...Eluere (1986: 59) has shown that two stones from a latethird-millennium grave at Telloh (called a ‘goldsmith’stomb’) exhibit no traces of gold and are not suitable foruse as touchstones; the same is likely to be true of anexample identified at Larsa in a ‘jeweller’s hoard’ (cf.Arnaud et al. 1979: 20-1, 23, fig.8). These haematiteobjects are either weights or burnishing stones, as may bethe case with a gold-streaked stone reported from Assur(Pedersen 1985: 123, n.7); this type of stone is notappropriate for use in a touchstone...

Sumerian literary texts refer to gold from Aratta(Pettinato 1972: 79). Gudea records receiving gold from themountain of Hah(h)um (Statue B. col. VI. 33-5; Liverani1988), taken to lie in that part of modern Turkey nearSamsat on the Upper Euphrates, and from Meluhha. In farless explicit terms the names of various mountains reputedto have gold sources are also recorded (Limet 1960: 94).Various texts refer to the almost mythical land of goldknown as (H)arallu, perhaps somewhere in the Iranianhinterland (Komoroczy 1972; Groneberg 1980: 20). Shu-Sin(c. 2037-29 BC) refers to gold from ‘Su-land’, probably inwestern Iran, though its location is still open (Edzard,D.O., 1959-60, Neuen Inschriften zur Geschichte von Ur IIIunter S’usuen, Archiv fur Orientforschung (Graz) 19, 1-32):16-18) and from (Mar)daman, possibly identical with Mardinin south-east Turkey (ibid.: 7; Edzard and Farber 1974:118). Documents relevant to the Dilmun, trade in the laterthird and earlier second millennium BC indicate that somegold was still reaching Ur up the Gulf at this time, butwhence it came, perhaps Meluhha, is not stated (Oppenheim,A.L., 1954, The Seafaring Merchants of Ur, Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society (New Haven, Conn.) 74, 6-17: 7;Leemans,W.F. 1960, Foreign Trade in the Old BabylonianPeriod as revealed by texts from southern Mesopotamia(Leiden): 120-1, is more cautious; cf. Leemans, W.F., 1957-71, Gold, Reallexikon der Assyriologie undvorderasiatischen Archaologie (Berlin) 3, 504-31). Therenowned resources of Egypt and Nubia (cf. Lucas 1962: 224-

8) contributed most certainly in the fourteenth century BCto Mesopotamian royal gold holdings (Edzard 1960; Wilhelm174). Then, for the first and only time in its history,Babylonia may have adopted the gold standard and largeamounts of gold came from Egypt to assist Kurigalzu I inhis major building projects (Brinkman 1972: 274-5; Muller1982; Powell 1990: 79-82). Hittite inventory texts of thethirteenth century BC record gold from Babylon and Lukka(Lycia) (Kosak 1982: 195)...

So far as is known, there were no sources of gold exploitedin antiquity in Mesopotamia, Syria, or Palestine; but themetal is widely reported on the periphery of this region(Maxwell-Hyslop 1977): in Turkey, where there is apreponderance of sources in the west and south-west (Jesus1980: 82 ff.); in Egypt and Nubia (Lucas 1962: 224-8); inconsiderable quantities in western and southen Arabia, notleast in Ophir (I Chron. 29: 4; 1 Kgs. 10; Job 22: 24; cf.Maisler 1951), being well known to both biblical andclassical auhors (Diodorus Siculus, III, xlv. 6 ff.;Strabo, xvi. 4,18,22: Periplus, 36, etc.); in greater Iran,notably in the north of the country and eastwards intoTransoxiana and the region of modern Afghanistan, wherethere are substantial vein and placer deposits (Dunlop1957; Chmyriov et al. 1973). Diodorus Siculus (II.xxxvi.2)and Pliny (Natural History, xxiii.66) refer to rich souresin India, though traces are no longer easy to detect(Allchin 1962; Ratnagar 1981: 106 ff.) With so wide a rangeof potential sources within her orbit, many of them inregions whence she is known to have received other metals.Mesopotamia is likely to have had a variety of choices ifand when supplies were for some reason blocked in anyparticular locality. It will be immediately clear that theancient texts already considered indicate import at varioustimes from all the potential sources zones listed here.

The wide distribution of potential sources does not easethe quest for a scientific method through whichMesopotamian gold sources might be ‘finger printed’. It isknown that platinum group elements (hereinafter called PGE)such as ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, andplatinum occur in gold objects from the ancient Near Eastboth in solid solution and as inclusions.. On the evidenceof the inclusions of the platiniridium alloy in a number ofSumerian and other ancient gold objects, notably Lydiangold coins supposedly of gold from the Pactolus valley inwestern Turkey, Young (W.J. 1972; cf. Whitmore and Young

1973) argued that this region has been an important sourceof Sumerian gold. Within a few years Ogden (1977), after acomprehensive review, concluded that direct correlation ofa gold object and its metal source through the PGEinclusions was not feasible. Maxwell-Hyslop (1977) alsoquestioned the Whitmore and Young hypothesis, pointed toother more likely and closer sources for Sumerian gold,both in eastern Turkey and in Iran... The gross distinctionseems to be that the Sumerians drew upon sources of goldother than those most easily accessible to westernregions...

Silver... Silver is found in nature both as a metal and inits non-metallic state. It also occurs in practically allgold. Native silver is rare (20 per cent is abundant asgold; 0.2 per cent as abundant as native copper) and isusually found in quantities not worth melting to makelarger, workable lumps (Patterson 1971)... The principalores of silver are the sulphides (argentite: silver glance)and the chlorides (cerargyrite: horn silver), which yieldedup their metal by simple smelting. It has long beengenerally assumed that most of the silver used in the NearEast in antiquity was extracted from argentiferous leadores, notably galena (lead sulphide) and cerussite (leadcarbonate)...it appears, Aegean silver was largely producedfrom galena.

Two steps are involved in producing silver from lead ores.Lead ore is melted first under the appropriate reducingand/or oxidizing conditions to produce metallic lead.Silver is then extracted from the lead by cupellation bywhich the lead is oxidised to litharge (lead oxide),leaving behind the silver. For this the lead is heatedunder strongly oxidizing conditions in a cupel. The leadoxide so formed is absorbed in the porous material of boneor ground-up potsherds in the cupel, leaving silver metalbehind. This process may be repeated several times topurify the silver; it is very efficient in freeing silverfrom such common impurities as copper, antimony, arsenic,tin, iron, zinc (less well for bismuth), in theargentiferous lead. Silver derived from argentiferousgalena will be characterized by gold contents from zero toabout 0.5 per cent, lead contents between 0.01 per cent and1 per cent, or rarely a little higher (Gale and Stos-Gale1981: 107).Silver derived from the native metal, with orwithout admixture of cerargyrite (a ‘dry silver’ ore veryeasily reduced to silver metal), will generally contain

less than 0.01 per cent gold and significant quantities ofmercury (ibid.). It is possible that silver was recoveredsometimes from the cementation process through whichelectrum was purified into gold. But there is, as yet, nohard evidence for this from literary, archaeological, oranalytical sources, in the area and time range consideredhere.

It has recently been suggested that liquation, using leadmetal to extract silver from copper, thought first to havebeen described by Agricola in the Ranaissance, had alreadybeen practised in the Late Bronze Age in installationsexcavated at Ras Ibn Hani in Syria (Bordreuil et al. 1984:404-8, figs. 4-5). This identification is doubtful. The OldBabylonian texts from Mari cited in support of theexistence of this process in the Near East in the secondmillennium BC do not sustain the case. They indicate that‘mountain copper’ was ‘washed’ (?purified/refined) toproduce ‘washed copper’ and that lead was used with silverto produce ‘washed silver’; but they do not show that leadwas added to copper to produce ‘washed silver’; but they donot show that lead was added to copper to produce ‘washed’silver, which is what would be expected if they are to betaken as evidence for the extraction of silver from coperby liquation (Bordreuil et al 1984: 407l citing Durand).That lead was plentiful in excavations at Ras Ibn Hani isnot relevant to this question. What matters it the methodof purifying, and there is no reason to suppose it wasliquation either at Mari or at Ras Ibn Hani (cf. Muhly,J.D., 1988, The wider world of lead ingots, Report of theDepartment of Antiquities (Cyprus, Nicosia) 263-5).